The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-02-09
TRICKS IN BANK NOTES.
TALES TOLD BY. AN OLD MAN IN
THE TREASURY.

IIl;Ln LII tllc ueaouIy, VIII LdS Deeh oLlc ol ono
features of the place for years While not
readily accessible to ordinary visitors, he can,
on presentation Of letter Of introduction,
render himself an extremely interesting per-
sonagc, inasmuch Us he is perfect store
house Of anecdotes, which ho relates with all
tho charm of an accomplished racontcur.
Into this gentlcmans hands, speaking meta
phoricully, happened to fall, and it re-
quircd no particular effort to make the OFF,
cial talkative He was inspecting at tho
moment a spurious 500 note, and this cir
cumstance gave rise to bis first anccdote.
II tell you," lie said, "tllcre is apparently no
limit to the clever tricks of counterfeitcrs.
Just look Mt this note. 1t doubtless deceived
over q hundred people before it came into
our hands. know for fact that it was ac-
ccpted as genuine by a hank teller in high
standing, and yet the instant certain young
woman il one Of our departments let her ex-
pericnced eye fall upon it, she detected its
worthless character. The neat workmanship
OH this bill reminds me Of case which camo
to our notice some time ago. A counterfcitcr
had got up number Of 500 notes on six
separate barlls. The copy used was on
bank which made its 500 notes in this style.
On one end Of tho paper was IN engraving
of ship, the yard-arm of which ran betwccn
two delicate ilourishes underneath tho word
"thc," which was the first word Of the namo
of the bank Of issue; as for instance, Tho
National Bank of the Republic, or the First
National bank. The fraud would have been
particularly neat one had the counterfeitcr
made his notes payable by the same bank
from which he obtained his original specimen.
Instead of being sufficiently shrcwd, however,
to avail himself of that precaution, or per-
haps through an excess Of caution, he made
them payable by six other banks. Each OF
these latter institutions had one distinctive
feature OH the face Of their 500 notes. TIE
yard arm Of tho vessel, instead of running he
tween the two minute fourishcs barely
touched tho outside Of the flourish nearer tho
top of tho note, and approached closer to tho
word 'thc' by tho sixteenth of an inch. or
course the counterfeit, which was a capital
piece Of workmanship with the one exception
mentioned, deceived merchants easily, and
deceived many tellers as well. The moment
the notes passed through tho hands Of lynx
eyed young lady at the treasury she dis
covered their spurious quality in a twink
ling"
fOCNG NOhEN ESES-
ut must be difficult, then," I remarked,
''to hoodwink your clever female clerlisf
How do they educate their eyes?"
"By constantly running over money. To
casually watch these women at work you
would probably imagine that their sole oinl
was simply to count the money as rapidly as
possible. Not So \ clerk will take pile CT
bills, tightly fastened together by rubber
bands, and without so much as looseninS tho
fastenings, she will begin to count at u
lightning rate bynerely turning over quickly
the upper right hand corner of each note.
Still, though she had only such small por-
ton Of the note for her guide, she will dis
cover counterfeit readily Let Inc relate q
little incident which happened while the
Seventh regiment was III the city. Some Of
tho boys, among them paying teller from q
New York bank, paid us q CALL looking very
elegant in their tasteful uniforms. They
were engaged for several moments in watch
ing the clerks count money i'll the manner
described.
Suddenly ono of the young women
snapped q note from the package which she
was running over. After she had thrown it
asi;le III an apparently careless manner, L
picked it UP and handed it to the visitors for
inspection. 1t was passed from one to another
without eliciting any special comment. Final
" it reached tue man whom knew to be d.
paying teller Ec examined it for moment.
and returned it to my possession without q
word I asked him if he had noticed any
thing peculiar in regard to it. He replied 10
the negative. And yet it was an ingenious
counterfeit, rs tho experienced eye OF tho
clerk had detected the instant she had turned
up corner Of it."
SPLITTING A NOTE IN TWO.
us it possible" asked, "for a note to be-
so split in two as to show both sides Of it in
tact"
"Oh, yes; and it is very easily done. You
procure certain kind Of gum, and paste the
note face downward to u piece of paper
Then you paste another piece Of paper over
the back of the llote. By carefully pulling
the two pieces apart the fiber Of the note will
split, and what looks like q difficult trallsac--
ton is easily accomplished. Nothing, how
ever, can lie gained by the operation. If one
half Of such bill were forwarded to Us for
redemption, we would return to the sender
one half OF its face value Sharpcrs indulge
occasionally in little game which consists OF
piecinG notes. That is, they will make nine
notes out Of eight, each note being pieccd
once. When you come to measure thcm You
will find that they are precisely one-eiGhth
shorter than they should be- Merchants aro
readily dupcd by them, but rarely bank
cashier"
"What is the rule relative to the redemption
of mutilatcd currency"
"We redeem nothing smaller than one-half
of q note, and we pay i'll proportion to tho
quantity Of the note sent, except where there
is only one-tenth missing. In the latter cass
we pay the full face value. If you were to
send us q one dollar note, onc-quartcr OF
which had been torn away, we would give
YOU seventy five cents for it. II within six
months, not later, you succeed in recover
ing the missing part, we would, OH its plcscn-
tation, pay you twenty five cents more. Sup
pose you brought us a shred of note, wisa
the edges sinScd, and asserted that it was tho
remnant of 500 bill which had accidentally
been destroyed by fire. We would request
YOU to make all affidavit i'll support OF your
story. If you could still further substultiate
your statement Ly the aiidavits of several
reputable persons who had witnessed tue dc
struction of the BILL we would then accept
tho shred and give You 500. Or course.
people frequently try to impose upon us,
but they invariably come to gricf.-Ncw
York Mail ard Express.
New Uso for "Cast-ofT' Gloves.
OF course you know "craZy work" is awful
Il f,,,1